New Numbers

You will have to excuse the self-indulgence in this post; this one is a reminder for me in the future.

I am amazed at all the things that my child learns to do; just how these things happen astound me. How does The Boy know how to hold the crayons? How does he know that by putting his finger on that button, then the balls will drop on his gumball machine? Here's the biggy: how does he know how to talk? I mean, obviously the more you talk to children, the more they hear and can imitate. But I actually mean how does he know how to shape his mouth and move his tongue and manipulate his vocal chords? It is such an amazing feat, children are so clever.

So I was even more impressed yesterday when he started 'counting' *. We had a full "1, 2, 3, 6" from him. Absolutely astounding. Hubby recited the numbers up to ten but he didn't bite, so we left it.

Today he decided to fulfill his role as a performing monkey and bestow upon us the numbers up to ten. Ok ok, we had an ommission of '5' and occasionally '8' but without any prompting The Boy uttered "1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10". And ok so the pronounciation on a few of the numbers is quite frankly a little bizarre but recognisable (7 is 'zenner').

It just demonstrates how much babies and toddlers absorb from the world around them. Obviously we say or sing nursery rhymes and songs to and with him, but I'm not sure how many of those actually go above five.

There is really only one place I can think of that he's heard this repeatedly. One of the television programmes that he loves is 'Charlie and the Numbers' on BabyTV channel (sky 623). Everyday Charlie plays with a different number and they have a little adventure. Then at the end of the programme there is a little song "One, one two three, one two three four five, six seven eight nine, nine ten, six seven eight nine, nine ten". So you see I think I know a reason why he misses out five, and sometimes four; they're the only two numbers not repeated in the song (long shot theory I know)

The Boy is clearly a mathematical genius – (audio link)

(* As an ex-nursery nurse and a teacher, I have a minor issue with using the word 'counting', The Boy is more appropriately sequencing. Proper counting is when a child associates the numbers with one more item each time; they point to a series of items and can say the relevant number increase each time. Merely reciting the numbers is not counting. I know this but I am not relaying this each time I write the word 'counting'. Plus he's a genius!)

Wow! He is a great talker isn't he? Good for you to blog about it, would too

Burton STILL doesn't say anything! He knows lots and understands what he is being asked and can communicate thru grunts and hand gestures but no words leave his mouth yet! I am amazed as I am such a chatterbox lol I have talked to him since he was born. So now I just wait until he speaks his first word or maybe it will be a sentence you never know!

This blog is more of a reminder for the future. Hubby suggested I photograph some numbers for my 365 as a reminder of what The Boy did today and then I thought why not blog it? After all, this blog is personal aswell as public.

Wow, clever boy. I went on a speech and language course a couple of years ago and learnt that just to speak is an amzing feat. We have to think of a word, associate it with something, think about forming the words and then put it into context inside our head before we even say it out loud. This is why sometimes children take a while to answer and you should always give ample time for responses. Sounds like you're doing a great job and the counting sounds brilliant. Gifted and talented pupils often start young like this!
XxX

They are amazing aren't they, I would love to take all the credit but quite honestly I have no idea where my boy gets it from! Although he is on his way to boy genious-dom, he has a strong aversion to the number 4, so we get 3,2,1,2,3,5,6,7,8,9,10!!!